October 6, 2005: Headlines: COS - Philippines: Polio: Rotary: Littleton Independent: Julie Welch-Bucceri, who served as a Peace Corps Volunteer in the Philippines in the late 1980s, remembers polio victims well

Julie Welch-Bucceri, who served as a Peace Corps Volunteer in the Philippines in the late 1980s, remembers polio victims well

Few Americans under the age of 50 have probably seen the muscle malformation, stilted growth and awkward movement that plague polio victims, most of whom are children when the virus strikes. This reporter, who served as a Peace Corps Volunteer in the Philippines in the late 1980s, remembers them well. Polio survivors are victims of a disease for which there has long been a vaccine, but not always enough funding, education and collective will to eradicate. Rotary International has often been able to do what individual governments have not--overcome these obstacles and get out to the remote places where disease hides

While most Littleton residents are probably aware that our community has a Rotary Club, and many might also know a bit about the work that Rotary does locally, the recent Littleton Historical Society meeting was dedicated to exploring the history and origins of the Rotary Club in the year of its centennial.

Don Sturtz, president-elect of the Littleton Rotary Club, was the invited guest speaker for the Historical Society's first meeting of the season. A member of both groups, Sturtz displayed copies of his Rotary-themed stamp collection (the originals are currently on display at the gallery at Regis College.

Rotary-themed stamps have been issued by more than 100 nations over the years, said Sturtz, who attributed their popularity to all of the good works done by Rotary over the years. He spoke proudly of the work Rotary has done both locally and internationally, including the enormously successful Polio Plus program, which has helped immunize over 22 billion children world wide, and has helped lead to the eradication of polio in most countries.

Few Americans under the age of 50 have probably seen the muscle malformation, stilted growth and awkward movement that plague polio victims, most of whom are children when the virus strikes. This reporter, who served as a Peace Corps Volunteer in the Philippines in the late 1980s, remembers them well. Polio survivors are victims of a disease for which there has long been a vaccine, but not always enough funding, education and collective will to eradicate. Rotary International has often been able to do what individual governments have not--overcome these obstacles and get out to the remote places where disease hides. According to Sturtz, there are only six countries in Asia and Africa where polio is still endemic.

Sturtz spoke about how Rotary has evolved into an organization with 1.2 million members in 32,000 clubs in 168 countries. 1905, when Paul Harris organized the first Rotary Club meeting in Chicago, it was in response to what Sturtz called being "A farmer upset with big city attitudes." Though he was a lawyer and a sophisticated individual, he was essentially a "farm boy" who had grown up with an ethic of neighbor helping neighbor-the spirit of volunteerism that Alexander de Tocqueville wrote of in Democracy in America.

When this story was posted in October 2005, this was on the front page of PCOL:

'Celebration of Service' a major successThe Peace Corps Fund's 'Celebration of Service' on September 29 in New York City was a major success raising approximately $100,000 for third goal activities. In the photo are Maureen Orth (Colombia); John Coyne (Ethiopia) Co-founder of the Peace Corps Fund; Caroline Kennedy; Barbara Anne Ferris (Morocco) Co-founder; Former Senator Harris Wofford, member of the Advisory Board. Read the story here.

Why blurring the lines puts PCVs in dangerWhen the National Call to Service legislation was amended to include Peace Corps in December of 2002, this country had not yet invaded Iraq and was not in prolonged military engagement in the Middle East, as it is now. Read the story of how one volunteer spent three years in captivity from 1976 to 1980 as the hostage of a insurrection group in Colombia in Joanne Marie Roll's op-ed on why this legislation may put soldier/PCVs in the same kind of danger.

The Peace Corps LibraryPeace Corps Online is proud to announce that the Peace Corps Library is now available online. With over 30,000 index entries in 500 categories, this is the largest collection of Peace Corps related stories in the world. From Acting to Zucchini, you can find hundreds of stories about what RPCVs with your same interests or from your Country of Service are doing today. If you have a web site, support the "Peace Corps Library" and link to it today.

Friends of the Peace Corps 170,000 strong170,000 is a very special number for the RPCV community - it's the number of Volunteers who have served in the Peace Corps since 1961. It's also a number that is very special to us because March is the first month since our founding in January, 2001 that our readership has exceeded 170,000. And while we know that not everyone who comes to this site is an RPCV, they are all "Friends of the Peace Corps." Thanks everybody for making PCOL your source of news for the Returned Volunteer community.

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Story Source: Littleton Independent

This story has been posted in the following forums: : Headlines; COS - Philippines; Polio; Rotary

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